


Paradigm Shift: A New Timeline

by sera_writes_at_3AM



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Community College, F/F, F/M, Multi, Original Female Character - Freeform, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Polyamory, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Troy and Abed in the Morning, Work In Progress, six seasons and a movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:40:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29489952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sera_writes_at_3AM/pseuds/sera_writes_at_3AM
Summary: In which Troy and Abed find the girl for them …
Relationships: Abed Nadir/Original Female Character(s), Britta Perry/Jeff Winger, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir/Original Female Character(s), Troy Barnes/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Paradigm Shift: A New Timeline

“I want to introduce someone into the group.”

The other six members of the study group shared a wary glance, looking between themselves and Abed who stood behind his normal chair. 

“You’re doing that thing again,” Abed remarked dubiously – partially because it was a quintessential quote in half of his favorite films and shows. When the group continued to stare, he elaborated, “The thing where you have a conversation with your facial expressions because you don’t count on my understanding.”

“Oh,” Shirley uttered softly. 

“You, Abed, our group’s famed introvert, want to bring somebody new into this group and change the dynamic?” Queried Jeff, rather skeptically. 

“I didn’t think about it that way …” Abed furrowed his brow as he thought.

It was true, there was a unique dynamic to this group compared to every single other clique on campus – he knew that for a fact because, as a cinephile, a pastime that he very much treasured was people-watching. 

First was the leader of it all, the man with the plan (granted that plan was to seduce Britta) who had gotten this whole group together by accident: Jeff Winger. A fraud and a self-proclaimed jerk who didn’t want to care about others, even if he found himself slipping and bonding with others. Somewhere along the line, he’d become somewhat of a messed up yet reliable father-figure to the younger, vulnerable, co-dependent members of the group.

Then there was Britta Perry, a government-hating social activist who was a bit rusty. Her problem was that she’d internalized that she wasn’t a good friend, and it’d done enough damage that she struggled to prove to herself that she could be good, which often lead to her not being the best friend that she potentially could be. In a nutshell, she was a woman who was self-sabotaging despite her best intentions.

Abed had been invited to the first study session by Britta, which he thought was admirable, and may have gotten a little too intensely eager. Abed was more elaborate than most of his peers throughout his lifetime had ever taken the time to grasp. What people saw in him on the spot was an awkward, lanky, Middle-Eastern male of no specific age who talked too much about cinema and was possibly on the spectrum. To be fair, a good portion of that was accurate (yielding that he was also part Polish, twenty-two years old, and had never been tested), but the more time someone spent with Abed, the more they realized he was someone who wanted to have friends and even more so wanted to be a friend to others.

Troy Barnes and Annie Edison were unique both together and apart because they’d gone to the same school together, and therefore were the actual firsts to know each other. Still, it couldn’t be clearer that they appeared to be polar opposites. Troy was a high school all-star football player whose career was tarnished by an injury caused by an unpracticed keg flip (and most certainly not a keg stand, he’d have you know). Annie was a perfectionist to a fault, more or less a control freak, and a high school valedictorian who unfortunately relied on unhealthy amounts of Adderall to keep her going. 

Shirley Bennett was a good Christian, family-focused woman, albeit with a bit of a temper that she did her best to control. Unfortunately, when they’d all met, her patience was wearing incredibly thin because of her broken marriage. Abed appreciated her more than he’d ever felt comfortable telling her. It took a while for any of the group to learn, but Abed’s mother had left when he was a child. If intimacy didn’t leave him feeling drained, he’d have told Shirley that he enjoyed having a maternal presence in the group. 

And lastly, Pierce Hawthorne. He was the one who kept them in heated discourse oftentimes. The facts showed that he was a baby-boomer who’d never had to worry about where his money was going because he never had to worry he’d be without it. His father was the creator of Hawthorne Wipes, and Pierce seemed very proud of that for a reason that Abed couldn’t put his finger on, so to speak. Pierce could be unapologetically insensitive … and was, more often than not. Still, the group never gave up on him for more than a couple of weeks at a time. Granted, maybe that said more about the people surrounding Pierce than it did about Pierce himself. In an uncanny, twisted way, the man kept things balanced. Maybe too much of a good thing was real, and Abed would rather find that out by watching it unfold where he wasn’t.

“Abed! You’re doing your thing again.” Jeff stated.

“What?” Abed asked.

“Your silent inner monologue with way too much eye contact.”

“So. you want to bring someone new into the group. I think that’s great.” Britta interjected, bringing them all back to the subject at hand. “Who is this person?”

“Her name is Corinne Dubois, she’s in her first year. I met her in statistics.” Abed explained. He made no move to sit down at the table.

“Yeah? What else?” Britta pressed.

“And … she seems … nice?” Abed added, unsure of what she was looking for. 

“Do we need another person, guys?” Annie spoke up for the first time, looking anxiously from person to person, her eyes widening Disney-style like they did when she either really wanted or really didn’t want something.

“We don’t need anyone in this group. We spend almost no time studying anyway, so we’d all be doing just the same in school if we didn’t meet at all. Although, our personal timelines could theoretically be drastically different.”

“Come on, Annie, I think we should at least meet her.” Britta chided. Abed figured it was because Britta was just happy to see him interacting with other people face to face outside of the six friends. He knew she worried about him.

“Yeah, who knows, maybe she’s looking for an unpaid babysitting gig, and I can actually get some work done so I can get my Bachelor’s and go back to being a regular adult man who doesn’t go to school with somebody called Starburns,” Jeff added, staring at his cell phone.

“Is she hot?” Pierce asked.

“Dude, gross!” Troy yelled. Then he looked back at Abed. “Is she, though?”

“More importantly, is she Christian?” Shirley asked. After receiving unimpressed stares, plus an eye-roll from Britta, she went on, “Not that I won’t accept her less than any of you … I’m just … curious.”

“Why don’t I bring her to lunch tomorrow and you can ask her all your questions?” Abed proposed.


End file.
